11 July 1768
From the Letters of Louis XV to the Infante Ferdinand of Parma
On this day, Louis XV writes to the Duke of Parma:
“My dear grandson,
I would be very pleased about the news that you wrote me to say you received from Vienna if I had at the same time received news from Spain. It is to be hoped that it will finally arrive. I would be very glad if you sent me a copy of the portrait that the German painter is supposed to make of you. I embrace you with all my heart, my dear grandson.
Louis.”
Commentary:
The matter at hand is Ferdinand of Parma’s engagement to the Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, the negotiations for which are now in their final stages. Spain is involved because Charles III of Spain is Ferdinand’s paternal uncle, the elder brother of the late Duke of Parma, and his approval is apparently required.
It is worth bearing in mind that Ferdinand is at this date still only 18 years old. He has no family left in Parma, his father having died in 1765, his elder sister in 1763, and his mother in 1759. His younger sister is alive and well, but she has been living in Madrid since 1765, when she married her cousin, the Prince of Asturias, as the heir to the Spanish throne is called.
Pictured: A portrait of the teenaged Ferdinand of Parma in the Nat’l Gallery in Parma, my own photo taken in May, 2024.
The portrait above is by a French artist called Pécheux, so it cannot be the one mentioned in today’s letter. The latter portrait is likely destined for Vienna.
The translation from the French is my own. Images that are not my own are in the public domain; I only explicitly credit them when the uploader has made it a condition of sharing his/her work via Wikimedia Commons. Words in italics in the body of the post or bold italics in verbatim translations and image captions are in the Glossary; the royal family and other Bourbons are in the Who’s Who; information about the sources is in the Bibliography; all of these are in the Resources section and freely available to paid subscribers and Grandes Entrées. If you have questions, please ask in the comments.
Sancerre is such a good choice!
So, in the case of Ferdinand's marriage, what was the reason for the requirement of the King of Spain's approval? The fact that he was the head of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon from which the Parma branch was derived, or the Infante's age? Maybe both?